


Jealous Fabrications & Misconcieved Insults

by nztina



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Alternate Universe - Harry Potter Setting, F/M, Fluff, Hogwarts Eighth Year, Misunderstandings, Theo Nott is not a nice guy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-09
Updated: 2021-02-09
Packaged: 2021-03-15 04:07:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,107
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29307771
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nztina/pseuds/nztina
Summary: A little story about a boy insulting a girl without knowing the girl can hear him...but he actually likes the girl, and he isn't really trying to insult her and...well...You get the idea.
Relationships: Hermione Granger/Draco Malfoy
Comments: 31
Kudos: 128





	Jealous Fabrications & Misconcieved Insults

**Author's Note:**

  * For [anne_ammons](https://archiveofourown.org/users/anne_ammons/gifts).



> It's my birthday in less than two hours! (Well, in NZ anyway.) And funnily enough, I'm turning as old as the number of fics I've now published on Ao3!
> 
> Weird coincidence, right?
> 
> I didn't know how to celebrate my birthday, so I thought I'd write this little story as a gift to a wonderful person that I've met in the fandom - Anne Ammons, the best beta I know. Also a supremely talented writer. Thank you for your kindness, I'm glad to have met you! I hope you enjoy this (unbeta-ed 😂🤪) fic!
> 
> A lovely reader offered to translate this fic into Russian, you can check it out [here!](https://ficbook.net/readfic/10405941)

**January**

At some point, they let go of the past.

All of them.

Ginny, Dean and Neville. Susan and Katie. Hannah, Parvati, and Ernie. Luna - although she never truly held a grudge in the first place. People were tired after the war. All of the deaths; all of the losses...those serious, life-altering occurrences put things into focus. No one wanted a repeat of previous years, so forgiveness was plentiful when students returned to Hogwarts that September. Hermione even persuaded Harry and Ron to let bygones be bygones before they went to start their Auror training in Surrey.

The Slytherins were less forthcoming about the whole thing, but sharing a common room with the rest of the students who chose to come back for a “do-over” year had its inevitabilities. Milicent Bulstrode was the first person to sign up to Dean’s study group and they had become fast friends after that. Ginny and Blaise Zabini took to sneaking off during dinner. Poor Neville accidentally found them snogging in the greenhouses, late at night, several times. (He no longer tended to his plants after sunset). Even Pansy Parkinson thawed. After a profuse apology to Harry and the promise that she would behave, it turned out that she was a much more decent person than many had previously thought.

Draco Malfoy had been the wild card.

But now, as he handed Hermione a glass of spiked pumpkin juice in the common room, she knew how much he had changed. The nervous, sullen shadow of Draco Malfoy who had entered the school gates last September was gone. In his place stood a bright, charming, funny young man. He flirted, laughed and diligently studied his way through his eighth year, and Hermione had the good fortune of witnessing his transformation. As it happened, not having a psychotic lunatic continuously threatening the lives of his loved ones was enough to make Draco a happier person.

On the first night back to school, the eight-year students had settled into their seats for dinner at the end of the nearly-empty Slytherin table, eschewing the standard for sitting at their own houses groups. Draco had elbowed his way in-between Hermione and Neville with purpose. Turning to her, Draco apologised.

\--

They talked for hours that evening. He apologised for the slurs, for the taunts, even for the _Densaugeo_ that hit her by accident. She told him about her parents and he told her about his childhood. At some point between her first memory of magic and his favourite flavour of ice cream, they were no longer strangers.

It was later that night, when they were sitting in the quiet, recently repaired courtyard and sharing a bottle of Firewhisky, that Hermione confessed to him that she had forgiven him a long time before. It had been the moment he and his mother turned their back on Voldemort during the battle.

“When your father called for you,” she murmured, her fingertips brushing against the cobblestones, “and you refused to go with him, I forgave you.”

“Why?” he had asked. “Why would you forgive me?”

Hermione shrugged, prising the bottle from his fingers. “Because it takes courage to stand up to the people you love.”

“I don’t deserve your kindness.”

“You do.”

\--

**April**

In the months that followed, Hermione and Draco became fast friends. Without Potter and Weasley by her side, she was lonely, and Draco didn’t just fill the gap. He burrowed a new space into her heart. He was sure of it.

There was a piece of Hermione Granger’s heart that had Draco Malfoy’s name written on it.

Platonically.

After all, you could spend all of your free time with a person, and think about them, and light up when you saw them, without it being love. Right?

“And another thing,” Draco said, breaking his croissant in half. “She’s literally never given me any signals that she’s interested.”

Dean blinked at him, his mouth full of cereal. “I don’t-,” he managed to warble, before Draco cut him off again.

“She’s dated guys, right? I mean, not since I’ve been friends with her, but she’s probably dating people on and off, yeah? Don’t you think?”

“I don’t-”

“Not _one_ _sign_ that she’s interested. I mean, can you believe the nerve of that woman,” he shot a glare at Ginny, who flipped him off lovingly, “to tell me that I should ask Hermione out? It’s like she _wants_ to see me berated in public.”

“Malfoy-”

“It’s not like I like her. I mean, yes. She’s beautiful. And she’s smarter than all of us put together. But that’s not equivalent to liking her. That’s just admiring who she is as a person.” 

Dean swallowed another mouthful of cereal, nodding. Draco downed his espresso in one shot.

“Have you noticed,” he continued, “that she smiles with her eyes? I think it’s because I grew up in an emotionally stunting household but I find it so bizarre that she smiles with her eyes. Actually, it’s like her whole body lights up. So peculiar.”

“Do you think-”

“It’s not like I’m overly-focused on her, Thomas. I know that’s what you were going to say. I swear, it’s just because she’s always there. It’s-”

__

“Oi!” Ginny Weasley shouted, standing up. “Which one of you idiots has been pumping Veritaspray around the hall?”

__

Draco froze, his mouth open.

__

_Veritaspray_.

__

The latest innovation from Weasley’s Wizard Wheezes. Some sort of cheap, diluted version of Veritaserum.

__

The one Hermione had told him about last week. One spray in a large room and a person’s secrets were no longer secret.

__

Draco slowly turned back to Dean, who looked halfway between amused and terrified.

__

“If you say _one word_ to her, Thomas…”

__

\--

__

**May**

__

Hermione never liked to doze by the fire in the common room because, more often than not, she would fall off the couch and wake in the middle of the night in the cold. This evening, she opted to do so anyway. Pansy was sitting opposite from her, poring over her Ancient Runes translations, and Neville was already fast asleep, his head in her lap. Pansy gently placed a parchment over his face and Hermione bit back a smile. She turned back to the book resting on the arm of the couch and tucked her feet under a cushion.

__

Theo Nott hadn’t come back to finish school, but he was here visiting his old friends this week. Draco had taken him out for drinks tonight in Hogsmeade. Hermione didn’t know Theo well but he had a reputation for being vile, so she kept away from him.

__

She was happy to wait up for Draco, though.

__

Hours passed and while she should have gone to her room by now, the book was too enthralling to close. She kept reading at an exhausted, glacial pace, turning pages only when she had enough energy to exert.

__

There was a soft click.

__

Both she and Pansy looked up as male voices carried in from the bottom of the stairwell.

__

“Mate, you’re honestly wrong,” Draco said, his voice light. “I’m telling you. She’s not that great. I wouldn’t waste my time, if I were you.”

__

Pansy started trying to ease Neville’s head down from her lap to the sofa, and Hermione raised a hand to her mouth in a shushing gesture.

__

Theo’s voice floated in. “Are you sure? I mean, she’s _your_ friend. I thought she’d be-”

__

“No, man. Boring as hell.”

__

“But pretty gorgeous, right?”

__

“If mountain troll is your cup of tea,” Draco chuckled.

__

A small trickle of dread settled into Hermione’s chest and Pansy’s face mirrored hers. They both waited with bated breath.

__

“You have to admit, Granger’s gotten herself done up well this year, though. Those tits are looking rather spectacular. Think she forgot to get a shirt that fits properly?”

__

And just like that, Hermione’s heart turned to stone and plummeted to her stomach. She felt painful pricks of tears in her eyes and forced herself not to cry. The girl opposite from her looked like she was about to punch something.

__

Draco was talking about _her_.

__

Hermione didn’t bother listening to what he was saying now; the boys' conversation became dull noise fading past her ears. Embarrassment heated her cheeks. Draco was talking about her like she was nothing and all she wanted now was to avoid looking him in the eye.

__

A surge of pure instinct propelled Hermione to act quickly.

__

It wasn’t a particularly intelligent plan, nor did she fully think it through. It was too late for her to run to her bedroom without being spotted, so she did what she could.

__

She waved her hands at Pansy, miming her zipping her mouth. Pansy looked outraged, raising her palms in question. Hermione shook her head and sank down into the cushions, closing her eyes and feigning sleep. She opened an eye for a second and saw Pansy nodding with reluctant understanding.

__

Pansy’s Slytherin instincts were the only thing Hermione could count on right now.

__

She was barely able to regulate her breathing before Draco and Theo walked into the room. There was a choking gasp from Draco and then Pansy whispered harshly,

__

“Shut _up_ , the both of you. You’ll wake them.”

__

Theo snickered, his voice low. “Cute. That your boyfriend, Parks? He’s adorable. Like a little, lost puppy.”

__

“Get fucked, Theo.”

__

“When did she fall asleep?” Draco asked, his voice tense. Panicked.

__

Pansy’s whisper was gratingly harsh. “Long enough ago to not hear the vile things you were just saying, Malfoy. What the fuck?”

__

“Not now, Pans. Just-I’ll talk to you in the morning, okay? ‘Night.”

__

“Good fucking night to you, too, Draco.”

__

There was a pause, and then he cleared his throat. “Make sure she doesn’t sleep down here. Her neck always gets sore when she does.”

__

\--

__

A few minutes later, when Hermione was sure that Draco and Theo were both in their rooms, she felt someone touch her cheek and looked up to see Pansy crouching in front of her.

__

“That was an interesting move, Granger,” she said, smiling wryly. “I wouldn’t have done it, myself, but quick thinking. Personally, I would have let him have it.”

__

Hermione pushed herself to sit upright, swiping at the solitary tear that escaped down her cheek

__

“It’s fine. I’m fine.”

__

“Something was off with him.” Pansy sat beside her, chewing on her lip. “Something was wrong, I swear. He wouldn’t _ever_ speak about you like that-”

__

“It’s okay,” Hermione interrupted, smiling shakily. “I was stupid to think that he changed.”

__

“No, Granger, don’t think that way. Honestly, just go and ask him. Or shall I? I can go and castrate him, if you want.”

__

“Please don’t. I don’t want to-” Hermione stopped, shaking her head as she stood. She knew that if she didn’t leave now, she’d have a panic attack. “I don’t want to think about this. I’m tired, and it’s late. I just want to sleep.”

__

“Granger-”

__

“Mmmm...wha’happen?” Neville mumbled, rubbing his eyes as he woke up. “Pansy?”

__

\--

__

After a hug from Pansy and a pat on the head from a sleepy Neville, Hermione went to her room. The ball of painful, anxious emotion lodged in her throat was threatening to give her a migraine. She peeled off her jeans and t-shirt, unclasped her bra and slipped into bed in nothing but her knickers. She was too tired for pyjamas.

__

It was only when she was tucked into her blanket and staring up at the dark ceiling that the tears started to leak from her eyes down into her hair.

__

_Draco had changed, hadn’t he?_

__

He had apologised, and changed, and become a better person.

__

_Or was it all a lie?_ Hermione tried to separate her personal feelings from the situation and still found herself surprised by Draco’s words.

__

Not once since they had started their strange last year at Hogwart had he spoken ill of anyone. Not even Ron when he came to visit them during Easter. Draco helped the first-years with their simple charms and marked papers for Professor McGonagall’s third and fourth year Transfiguration classes. He even wore one of Hermione’s old S.P.E.W. badges on his vest.

__

None of that; none of the past year seemed to reflect the nastiness she heard this past hour.

__

The spiteful mockery in his tone.

__

The way he casually referred to her as a _troll_. He even laughed.

__

It made no sense.

__

But Hermione was tired, and that lowered her tolerance. Anger simmered in her blood and she felt herself getting more and more upset.

__

At some point, her misery gave way to exhaustion and she fell asleep.

__

\--

__

Something was poking her and she swatted at it.

__

“Granger.” Something knew her name.

__

“Go’way.”

__

“Granger, wake up.”

__

Her eyes snapped open and she turned, knowing exactly whose 300 Galleon cologne was currently invading her olfactory senses.

__

“Go _away_.”

__

Draco sighed, sitting on the bed.

__

“Pansy told me you heard me.”

__

Hermione cursed Pansy Parkinson, her children and her grand-children.

__

“Then you’ll know how dangerous it is for you to be here right now.”

__

“Hermione, let me explain. I would have waited until morning but I couldn’t bear to let you fall asleep upset-”

__

“Do you really think so low of me?” She didn’t mean for her voice to sound so hurt, but it did. “Do you think I’m _that_ horrible? That ugly?”

__

He groaned.

__

“Hear me out.”

__

“No. _Leave_.”

__

“It wasn’t true, what I said. It wasn’t true.”

__

Hermione shifted, pulling herself upright, her arms coming to wrap around her knees. She could barely make out Draco’s form in the dark.

__

“I get it, Draco. Honestly, I understand.” She laughed softly. Spitefully. “It was a stroke of genius on your part.”

__

“What?”

__

“You were pretending to be my friend so that the school and the Ministry would see that you were making efforts to move away from your past. I understand, and it was smart of you. Pretending to befriend the person you hate the most.”

__

“I don’t hate you,” he whispered, and it irritated Hermione to hear the hurt in his voice. “I didn’t mean anything that I said to Theo, Granger, you have to believe me-”

__

“People very rarely say things that they don’t truly mean, Draco. If that’s how you see me, then tell me now so we can end this charade. You can stop pretending to be my friend and I won’t get in your way, if you prefer it like that.”

__

“I _don’t_ prefer it. I want you in my way.”

__

“Then why did you tell Theo Nott that I was the last girl in the world that he should want to date? What’s so bad about me that your friend shouldn’t ask me out?”

__

“Granger-”

__

“Is it because I’m a Muggle-born and he’s a pure-blood? Is that still so important to you?”

__

The strangled gasp from her strange bedfellow was so sharp that she could almost feel it cutting across her skin. A warm hand tentatively brushed against her arm before grasping onto it firmly.

__

“You _know_ I don’t believe in that anymore.”

__

“Then what? Why did you put him off me?”

__

A silence followed, and Hermione tried her hardest not to focus on the pulse of warm, calming magic that flowed through Draco’s palm into her own body.

__

“Because I was jealous.”

__

She couldn’t help the laugh that escaped her. Suddenly, there were long, delicate fingers brushing past her arm up to her neck. They came to a rest at her jaw, his thumb stroking softly against her cheek. She didn’t have the strength to push him away.

__

“When he came back to visit us this week, he noticed you at breakfast and started asking weird questions. It didn’t take me long to figure out that he was interested, and I realized that if I didn’t act quickly, he’d ask you out. I was working up the courage to do so myself, so you must understand the wrench he threw into the works.”

__

“You were jealous? Of him?’

__

“No, Hermione, I was jealous of the Bloody Baron,” he scoffed. “Yes, _obviously_ I was jealous of Theo. He’s vile and cruel but he’s good with women and I know you’ve not been dating anyone.” He must have heard her soft snort, because he then said, “I didn’t want to think you’d accept the invitation to be his date, but on the off-chance you did, it would have broken my heart.”

__

She glided her focus over his last sentence.

__

“So you trash-talked me instead? Draco, that is so far beyond crossing the line.”

__

“Okay, _first_ , I panicked. _Second_ , I’m a Slytherin. When we were out at dinner, he was getting progressively drunker, and vulgar as a result. He said some really foul things about what he wanted to do to you and I thought that talking you down; making you seem unworthwhile would be the best way to convince him not to ask you out.”

__

“You couldn’t just tell him you,” she hesitated, “cared about me?”

__

The fingers on her jaw trailed to the back of her neck and she felt him shift closer.

__

“That would have spurred him on.” He waited a beat, before whispering, “Competition.”

__

Something gave way inside Hermione as she acknowledged the validity of Draco’s argument. He had a point. Still,

__

“Didn’t you trust my judgement? You, of all people, know that I’m perfectly capable of refusing Theo Nott by myself. And if he did try anything, I’m quite good with a wand, you know.” She left a trace of humour in her voice, and he picked up on it, nudging her over on the bed. She obliged, hearing his shoes drop to the floor as he kicked them off. She pulled the covers over the both of them, and felt him sink down to rest his head against the pillow.

__

“I know. I just thought I could protect you from him.”

__

“That’s stupid. I’m Hermione Granger.”

__

“Yes, I know. Hermione Granger doesn’t need protecting.”

__

She knew he couldn’t see her scowl so she pinched his chest. “Don’t tease.”

__

The hand that pinched him was immediately clamped in a larger, stronger grip and she felt Draco tug her closer, until she could feel his cool, minty breath on her cheek. They breathed in silence, letting the darkness of the room soothe their anxiety, until Hermione spoke softly, saying,

__

“You really hurt my feelings, you know?”

__

“I know.”

__

“Pansy was about to hit you with Neville’s body.”

__

“She marched into my room twenty minutes ago, silenced it, and then proceeded to give me the most terrifying sermon of my life. Worse than anything during the war, honestly. She had her wand to my throat at one point.”

__

Hermione rescinded her curse on Pansy and her descendants.

__

“What did she say?”

__

“Well, there was a lot of cursing. Aside from that, the main gist of it was that I was a very bad man, and that I didn’t deserve you, and that if I didn’t come here on my knees to beg your forgiveness, she would make sure I couldn’t sire any heirs, thus ending the Malfoy line.”

__

“Sounds like her.”

__

“I am sorry, Hermione. None of the things I said were remotely true. I was counting on Theo not knowing you very well, and only having seen you across a few rooms during our years here. If he had gotten to know you well enough, he would have never backed down.”

__

“Was it true? What you said before?”

__

“No, I already told you-”

__

“No,” Hermione said, trying to remember Draco’s exact words. “That you were jealous? That...me dating him would have broken your heart?”

__

The sheets rustled as Draco’s arm moved to drape itself across Hermione’s waist, his hand splaying across her back.

__

“Yes.”

__

“Yes?”

__

“Yes, I was jealous. I _am_ jealous every time some pathetic seventh-year bats his eyes at you when you walk by. I’m jealous when Ron Weasley stops by on the weekend to take you out for coffee in Hogsmeade-”

__

“He’s just a friend, Draco, how many times do I have to tell you?”

__

“-and I was beside myself thinking that Theo would swoop in and steal you away from me. Not that you’re mine, of course,” he quickly said, worry in his voice. “I’d never presume to think that I had any sort of claim over you-”

__

\--

__

If there was something more that Draco was planning to say, all of his thoughts flew out of his head when small hands clamped onto either side of his face. His bottom lip was suddenly enveloped between two softer lips and he found himself being kissed by Hermione Jean Granger. And it wasn’t a dream.

__

She kissed him for a solid minute before pulling back.

__

“Hermione, we shouldn’t-”

__

“What?” she asked, breathless. He took hold of her wrists, gently drawing them away from his face.

__

“You’re upset. I upset you, and you’ve had a rough night. Don’t do something you’ll regret. Let’s just sleep it off, alright?”

__

She was silent, and he wondered if she was chewing on her lip like she always did when stressed. Then, she started laughing. Loudly.

__

“Oh, Draco,” she wheezed, “you’re so daft.”

__

Bemused, he waited for her to elaborate, and she eventually settled down.

__

“I’ve been waiting for you to make a move for the past _three_ _months_!”

__

“Excuse me?”

__

“I’ve been hinting for _ages_ that I like you! I didn’t want to ask you outright if you liked me back, because Blaise said you scare easily. Like a deer.”

__

He made a mental note to hex Blaise the next time he laid eyes on him. Then her words came into focus, properly.

__

“Wait, you like _me_?”

__

She sighed, deeply, like he was trying her patience. “Draco, of _course_ I like you! I’ve liked you for so long! I was being so obvious, too!”

__

“I thought,” he hesitated, “I thought that you treated all your friends the way you’ve treated me this year.”

__

Her hand was suddenly on his chest, her palm pressing firmly against his thudding heart.

__

“Do you think,” she said, all traces of laughter gone from her voice, “that I let all of my friends come and sleep in my bed with me when they don’t want to be alone after a nightmare?”

__

He paused, unsure.

__

“...Yes?”

__

She sighed, and he could almost picture her rolling her eyes.

__

“No, Draco. I don’t let my other friends sleep in my bed three to four nights a week. I don’t let my other friends steal chips off my plate at dinner. I don’t write letters to my other friends’ mothers. I don’t bloody ask my other friends to help me do up the zip on my dress when I’m getting ready for a party.”

__

“You..don’t?”

__

“No, Draco, I don't. It’s been you this whole time, but you were too blind to see it.”

__

Realisation poured over Draco like ice water as Hermione spoke.

__

“I’ve gone about all of this the wrong way, haven’t I?” he groaned, embarrassed. He heard a soft rustle that meant Hermione was nodding her head.

__

“It’s a good thing that Dean told me what you said when that fourth-year used up a whole bottle of Veritaspray at breakfast last month, or I would have given up by now.”

__

Mortification flooded through Draco and he added Dean to his hexing list.

__

“I’m going to kill-”

__

“You won’t lay a finger on Dean,” Hermione interrupted, pressing a quick kiss against Draco’s lips. “You’re going to stay here and go to sleep, and in the morning, I’m going to tell Theo Nott to get his arse out of the spare dorm and leave Hogwarts before he tries his luck on some poor, unsuspecting sixth-year.”

__

Draco grinned into the dark. “Did I ever tell you how wonderful you are?”

__

Hermione burrowed her nose into his neck, her hair ticking his chin. “After he’s gone,” she said, her voice muffled, “you and I are going to sit down and discuss our relationship like proper adults.”

__

“Good plan.”

__

“Oh, and if I hear you speaking badly about me again,” she paused, her voice dangerously smooth, “no matter what the reason, I won’t hesitate to let Pansy have a go at you. And she’s a lot scarier than I am, as you know.”

__

“I don’t doubt it for a second, Granger.”

__

“Goodnight.”

__

“Goodnight.”

__

“Don’t snore.”

__

“You’re the one who snores.”

__

“You’ll be the one who goes missing.”

__

Draco kissed the top of Hermione’s head. The last he thought before falling asleep was;

__

_Thank Merlin that Theo Nott came back to Hogwarts this week._

__

**Author's Note:**

> I hope you liked this little fic. Thank you for reading all the way through! ❤️
> 
> Edit: yes, Hermione was almost naked in the last scene, and yes, there was embarrassment in the morning. But they got past it pretty quickly 😉.
> 
> Now, you should go and read my lovely friend, anne_ammons’ one-shot that was inspired by this one. It’s in the same universe as this fic, and it’s a beautiful story. 
> 
> Feel free to drop me a line on [tumblr](https://nztina.tumblr.com/).


End file.
